Detect if chair is occupied in monitoring a large area

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi everyone,
I have look up some reference which working on the same project as mine.

I have decide to use IR disctance sensor but i have a few question about the system .

  1. how can i monitor a lot of chair, let say 10 chairs.
    Can i use one single arduino to do this?

  2. can i use wifi for the infrared sensor to send data to the audurino?

  3. is it ok if i use ESP8266 with my arduino to upload the data online?

2

vincentlai:
3. is it ok if i use ESP8266 with my Arduino to upload the data online?

If you use an ESP8266, you can use it instead of an Arduino. :grinning:

3

There are lots of ideas on that StackExchange link.

What, exactly are you planning to do?

You can use an ESP8266 without an Arduino but it may not have as many I/O pins as an Arduino. Without knowing how you plan to sense the occupancy it is impossible to know what is required.

...R

4

The arduino has many input pins. you can connect one IR sensor to each and easily monitor a dozen chairs by connecting directly to the pins on your UNO.

you can get a chip called a shift register or one called a port expander and then use 4 pins on the UNO and read 8, 16 or 32 IR sensors, or use as second shift register, connected to the first and add another 8, and another, and another.....

you could easily read if 64 individual IR sensors detect if someone is present, or not.
all with one Arduino UNO (or mini/nano/micro)
this is done very often and there are lots of examples.

5

dave-in-nj:
all with one Arduino UNO (or mini/nano/micro)

Or as I mentioned, with an ESP8266 if you want WiFi.